Breakup of GR fuel heist yields suspects in other thefts

A report of suspicious activity and a suspicious vehicle in Green River led to the arrest of three Cuban men.

In the early morning hours of Dec. 5, a Nissan Titan truck was pulled up to dump trucks and construction equipment in a yard and some men were pumping fuel from the construction equipment into two large fuel tanks in the bed of the pickup truck.

Deputy Blake Gardner from the Emery County Sheriff's Office went to the scene and found the men in the act of stealing the diesel fuel. There were several trucks in the yard at the time. Deputy Gardner made the arrests and after the suspects were taken back to the Emery County Sheriff's Office a search found a Budget Rental truck key with numbers on it.

Sgt. Mitch Vetere in Green River was contacted and he began a search for the vehicle. He found the truck behind the Short Stop. It was a box truck and it looked like it was leaking fuel. Sgt. Vetere called the detectives to come down and look at the truck to gather evidence for a search warrant.

Det. Sgt. Robert Blackburn and Det. Jerod Curtis went to Green River and gathered evidence and the search warrant was obtained. The truck was opened and a large fuel tank was found inside the box truck. It appeared that fuel had been off loaded from the tanks on the pickup truck into two large fuel tanks inside the box truck and also into fuel drums.

Police suspect that the suspects had been traveling across the interstate and hitting yards and stealing fuel and then reselling it.

The detectives then sent out a teletype across the state to see if any other locations were having a problem with stolen fuel. They found there was a big fuel theft from a business in Beaver County.

There was a 500 gallon tank in the back of the box truck and it was empty. There were two 250 gallon tanks that were full. The fuel in Green River was taken from the equipment at High Desert Excavation.

The fuel in Beaver was taken from Anytime Towing.

Those taken into custody as a result of the police response were Racet Maike Hernandez, 35, Maikel Sajay Caso Machuca, 25 and Dylan Michel Delgado Machuca, 18.

The defendants waived their right to a preliminary hearing. They have bailed out of jail and are awaiting a court date on numerous charges including auto burglary.

It is estimated that they alledgedly stole several hundred gallons of fuel during the foray.